Electronic storage device (ESD) technology is well developed and applications are widespread. To aid their design, development, maintenance, and support, ESDs include vendor unique commands (VUCs). I/O interface specifications for ESDs (e.g., SCSI, ATA) make provisions for vendor unique commands by setting aside a range of command codes for this use. Vendor unique commands are a set of commands carried by the protocols of the I/O interface specification created by storage device vendors for their own purposes, such as testing and verification of their designs. As the complexity of storage devices has increased, the number of VUCs has evolved to become a considerable amount of code.
An illustration of a system 100 for implementing VUCs in the prior art is shown in FIG. 1. System 100 includes a host or other type of computer 110 and an ESD 120 connected by an interface 150. Interface 150 may be implemented as a SCSI, ATA, or some other type of interface. Computer 110 includes a processor 111, RAM 112, ROM 113, and I/O interface 114. The ESD 120 includes processor 121, RAM 122, FLASH 123, media components 124, and I/O interface 126. In the prior art system 100, a quantity of code 130 includes a dispatcher 131 and vendor unique subroutines 132-134. Each subroutine may call on one or more functions, as illustrated by functions 1-3 in 135. The code 130 is typically executed from RAM 122, FLASH 123 or ROM (not shown).
In operation, host computer 110 will send a vendor unique command to the ESD 120 indicating that a particular VUC is to be executed. Upon receiving this command, the ESD runs a dispatcher 131 within code 130. The dispatcher will then call on the appropriate vendor unique subroutine. The vendor unique subroutine will typically involve executing a series of functions, the compilation of which is particular to the subroutine.
As discussed above, the amount of memory space taken by the code that implements the VUCs has increased as ESDs have evolved in complexity. What is needed is a method for providing VUCs that overcomes the disadvantages and limitations of the prior art.